birdbrain wrote:They were probably related but is'nt everybody in Tasmania.

Now now, don't be like that !

It probably wasn't a RR incident at all.

The 63yo man was pursuing the 37yo man after finding him in bed with his Wife. The 37yo allegedly told his mother it wasn't a good idea, but was reassured by the fact that his sister was watching from the cupboard.

Ignoring the requirement to pay up damages to Mr Olden, the sentencing may be nothign more than a penalty on paper. And it may be that Sullivan will indeed ignore the damages as so many others do while the court stands aside and ignores it. And courts seldom award the full cost of damage so Mr Olsen may need to pursue a civil action.

But mostly, from a forward looking perspective and the safety of others, I would have wanted to know that Sullivan's state of mind has alreaqdy been subjected to some form of psych assessment. And, if not, that the sentencing include a direction to that effect. The bloke will quite legally be entitled to be behind the wheel again in six months with a state of mind that can only be guessed!

Maybe some of this is addressed but the article doesn't give any hint of it.

when i was much younger, i lost my license for 6 months when a 'mate' of mine used my car to do donuts on a grass roundabout. all this guy did is go nuts on the road, terrorising other roads users and ramming them, and he gets the same suspension. it's not like he did any donuts. where's the justice?!

Well it just confirms that if you want to kill someone do it with your motor vehicle because the punishment will be non-existent or very light. Magistrates should be elected. There is no accountability for inadequate sentences issued by the judiciary.

Sullivan was charged with dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and wilful damage.Yesterday Sullivan was sentenced to two years' probation and six months' licence suspension...."He (Sullivan) used the vehicle as a weapon against me. If it was any other country, he would have been charged with attempted murder or using a motor vehicle as a deadly weapon," Mr Olsen said.

That's interesting because I have been following this story from day 1 and read a month or two ago that the charges were dropped. I'm surprised to see that a sentence has been handed down but not surprised at how lenient it appears. If I was the victim, I would sure be more than annoyed at the sentence handed out.

The video is pretty terrifying. Especially because the victim is an ex-policeman so seems to know some of the tricks to trying to get away and even he is getting pretty scared at the end. I would not have thought to reverse or cross onto the wrong side of the road or onto the footpath.

What scares me (apart from the video itself) is the fact that this guy just happened to capture it on camera when so few road rage cases are. To read about it in the newspaper is one thing - often it's just words on a page, we shake our head and move on to the next article - but to see actual footage is far more visceral and really brings home what we are potentially dealing with on our roads.

I have only been witness to one serious road rage incident that involved cars having to move up onto the median strip off, a nutcase with a baseball bat and his hysterical girlfriend. Thankfully it didn't escalate beyond threatening words and a smashed side mirror to the victim. But that is one more incident than I ever want to see again.

Property is often held in higher regard than life or limb by the courts. And in line with popular culture the perceived value value of the property is often out of line with its actual value. A theft of $20,000 of jewellery will be more enthusiastically prosecuted by the enforcers of the law than the theft of $20,000 of work tools. In my (limited) experience.

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